Grutter, a white law school applicant that was denied admission,
brought Equal Protection suit to challenge the University of
Michigan Law School's Admission policy of relying on an
applicant's race in the admissions decision.

Rule

oRacial classifications must be
narrowly tailored to achieving a compelling state interest.

Application

oEducational diversity is a
compelling state interest.

OConnor Summary

oUnder Regents of the University of
California v. Bakke, student body diversity serves a compelling
state interest that can justify the use of race in the
admissions process.

oTo withstand a constitutional
challenge, however, a race-based admissions policy must be
narrowly tailored to achieve the compelling state interest.

oTo be narrowly tailored to its
compelling interest, a law school may not use an applicant's
race to meet a predetermined quota, but may use race as a "plus"
when admitting an otherwise eligible applicant.

Thomas Summary

oMany of these students are admitted
with dreams of obtaining a law degree from a prestigious school
only to find failure in the face of competition among the
student body.

oYet, had these students attended a
less-elite school with other students of like caliber, their
legal education may very well be enhanced, and their successes
more easily achieved.

oWhether the use of race as a factor
in student admissions is unlawful? No.

oWhether a law school may use race as
a factor in student admissions? Yes.

Procedure

Trial

oThe trial court concluded that the
policy was unlawful and granted an injunction.

Appellant

oSitting en banc, the United States
Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed the judgment and
vacated the injunction.

Supreme

oAffirmed Circuit Court

Facts

Discussion

Key Phrases

Rules

Pl
- Grutter

Df
- Bollinger

Description

oGrutter, a white law school
applicant, brought suit to challenge the University of Michigan
Law School's policy of relying on an applicant's race in the
admissions decision.

oThe University Of Michigan Law
School's admissions policy required school officials to consider
the grades, personal statements, personal recommendations, and
other scholastic criteria in accepting candidates for school
admission.

oThe policy also emphasized the
inclusion of candidates from racial or ethnic groups
historically victimized by discrimination to foster racial and
ethnic diversity in the student body.

oGrutter ,a white candidate, brought
suit when her application was denied because the school's policy
relied upon race in violation of the Equal Protection Clause.

oPublic and private universities
across the Nation have modeled their own admissions programs on
Justice Powell's views.

oThe Court endorses Justice Powell's
view that student body diversity is a compelling state interest
in the context of university admissions.

Section II B

All racial classifications are subject to Strict Scrutiny

oAll racial classifications imposed
by the government must be analyzed by a reviewing court under
strict scrutiny.

Not All racial classifications are invalided by Strict Scrutiny

oWhen race-based action is necessary
to further a compelling governmental interest, such action does
not violate the constitutional guarantee of equal protection so
long as the narrow-tailoring requirement is also satisfied.

Section III - A

Question

oWhether the use of race as a factor
in student admissions is unlawful?

Degree of deference to universitys academic decisions

oGoal of assembling a class that is
both exceptionally academically qualified and broadly diverse.

oGoal it to benefit for a racially
diverse classroom that has livelier discussion and simply more
enlightening.

oIndividuals with law degrees occupy
roughly half the state governorships, more than half the seats
in the United States Senate, and more than a third of the seats
in the United States House of Representatives.

oAccess to legal education (and thus
the legal profession) must be inclusive of talented and
qualified individuals of every race and ethnicity, so that all
members of our heterogeneous society may participate in the
educational institutions that provide the training and education
necessary to succeed in America.

Section III B

Narrowly tailored Cannot use quota system

oA race-conscious admissions program
cannot use a quota system--it cannot "insulate each category of
applicants with certain desired qualifications from competition
with all other applicants." Bakke, supra, at 315, 57 L Ed 2d
750.

Narrowly tailored Race is a Plus

oInstead, a university may consider
race or ethnicity only as a "'plus' in a particular applicant's
file," without "insulating the individual from comparison with
all other candidates for the available seats."

Some attention to numbers is okay

oThere is of course "some
relationship between numbers and achieving the benefits to be
derived from a diverse student body, and between numbers and
providing a reasonable environment for those students admitted

o
"Some attention to numbers," without more, does not transform a
flexible admissions system into a rigid quota.

In this Case

oThe Law School engages in a highly
individualized, holistic review of each applicant's file, giving serious consideration to
all the ways an applicant might contribute to a diverse
educational environment.

oThe Law School affords this
individualized consideration to applicants of all races. There
is no policy, either de jure or de facto, of automatic
acceptance or rejection based on any single "soft" variable.

oUnlike the program at issue in Gratz
v Bollinger, ante, the Law
School awards no mechanical, predetermined diversity "bonuses"
based on race or ethnicity.

Grutter Arg Not Narrowly Tailored

oThe Law School's plan is not
narrowly tailored because race-neutral means exist to obtain the
educational benefits of student body diversity that the Law
School seeks.

Justice Thomas Joins Part I-VII, Concurring in part and
dissenting in part

Frederick Douglass

oDo nothing with us!

oGive him a chance to stand on his
own legs!

Section I

oMeasures a State must take
constitute a pressing public necessity.

Section III B

No pressing public necessity

oThere is not pressing public
necessity in maintain a PUBLIC law school at all, and certainly
not an ELITE law school.

oSome states dont even have an ABA
accredited law school.

No Compelling state interests

oLess than 16% of Michigan Law School
students practice in Michigan.

oIt has become a way-station for the
rest of the countries lawyers.

Section IV Minimum Qualifications Method

Minimum Qualifications Method

oWith the adoption of different
admissions methods, such as
accepting all students who meet minimum qualifications,
the Law School could achieve its vision of the racially
aesthetic student body without the use of racial discrimination.

B-1

Heterogeneity
Impairs learning among black students.

Homogeneity
is racial segregation.

C

Berkley

oSatisfied mission without resulting
to racial discrimination.

Section V

Certificate System

oWhere a person would be admitted to
a school if they complete the course offered by the school.

Selective Admissions

oThe vehicle for racial, ethnic, and
religious tinkering.

LSAT

oComes with Constitutional burdens.

Equal Protection Forbids, but the Court TODAY allows

oThe use of merit based standards
WITH racial discrimination.

Section VI Overmatched students take bait

Elite Schools

oTantalize unprepared overmatched
students.

oFind out they cannot succeed in the
competition.

oNo evidence they receive a better
legal education.

oStigma of which black were admitted
because of race or because of merit.

Less Elite Schools

oBetter prepared.

Thomas Summary

oMany of these students are admitted
with dreams of obtaining a law degree from a prestigious school
only to find failure in the face of competition among the
student body.

oYet, had these students attended a
less-elite school with other students of like caliber, their
legal education may very well be enhanced, and their successes
more easily achieved.

Section VII imprimatur (Official approval)

Color-Blind Constitution

oOur Constitution is color blind.

oOur nation has adopted the
Fourteenth Amendment.

oNo we must wait another 25 years to
see this principal of equality vindicated.

Rules

Rule

oRacial classifications must be
narrowly tailored to achieving a compelling state interest.

Application

oEducational diversity is a
compelling state interest.

Supplement

Thomas' dissent:

Justice
Thomas (joined by Justice Scalia) wrote a long, highly
personal, dissent that seemed to stem partly from his own
negative personal experience with affirmative action.

Not a compelling interest:

Unlike Rehnquist and Kennedy, Thomas did not even
accept the position that the Law School had a
compelling interest in pursuing diversity in its
student body.

Affirmative action bad for its beneficiaries:

Thomas then attacked affirmative action, of the sort
practiced by the Law School, as being bad for its
beneficiaries.

"The Law School tantalizes unprepared [minority]
students with the promise of a University of
Michigan degree and all of the opportunities that it
offers.

These overmatched students take the bait, only to
find that they cannot succeed in the cauldron of
competition."

Furthermore, he wrote, even the "handful" of black
students each year who would have been admitted in
the absence of racial discrimination are damaged by
the policy: "Who can differentiate between those who
belong and those who do not? The majority of blacks
are admitted to the law school because of
discrimination, and because of this policy all are
tarred as undeserving."